What determines value?
What makes a dollar greater than a coin
Why does it feel like worth vanishes
From everything that matters
Why do others get to decide my value?
Why can I not move forward

I’m done listening to their words
I’m done allowing chains to hold me back
These weights that have held me down
Forged from the hammer of heavy words
And heated anger against something else
Will no longer hold me back
Because if they can decide my worth
Then I will decide how heavy the weight is.

No longer will their past weigh me down
No longer will it affect my actions
I’m done being afraid of the pain
I’m done being bound
By the sorrow and regret of others
Since I made their problems my burden
I did not allow myself to move forward
And instead follow in the shadows
Changing how I saw my worth
As their scars and damage was added to my own.
No longer did I shine like a silver dollar
But instead I became covered in dirt and hidden.
My apparent value decreasing with each lie I told myself

Well no longer will dirt of their problems
Blind my eyes and hide my glow
No longer shall their words
Fall heavy against the fire of pain
No longer shall they forge new weights and chains
But instead I will shine
My passion burning brighter
Than their pain from the past
As their crude and dark chains melt
And I forge them into a sword
That shines bright as I pave my own path into the future
Instead of following in their wake

No longer is my worth muddied by others
But instead is more than ever before

thank you
lover
-
for the
reminder
-
that no
longer
-
are they**
stronger
-
than my voice.